WHAT IF I HAVE A LOWER BACK ISSUE?

Here’s what normally happens. A person bends forward at home and feels tightness or a clenching feeling in their back. It makes them nervous, so they move carefully for the next few days, and the tightness goes away. Then it happens again, and now the person starts thinking that something is wrong. The thing that is wrong is that they’ve spent decades trying not to use their back because there is this absurd cultural myth that your back is inherently weak. So now this person goes for years worrying about his back and trying to use it as little as possible. Of course, during this time, his back gets weaker and weaker and weaker, because it is primarily static. And finally, something more serious happens because there isn’t enough structure strength in his back to function.

So the solution is to start challenging your back very carefully, but eventually train your back with as much vigor as anywhere else on your body. The lower back has just as much strength as any other muscle group, but it's structural strength, so you need to train it accordingly.

You’ll need to stop avoiding your back through your day. And stop ignoring your back in the gym. Also, don’t buy into all this “core” nonsense. If your lower back is weak, it’s because your lower back is weak. The only solution is the strengthen it intelligently.